West Texas Section News

May 23, 2012

News From Around West Texas

Although some rain fell during the week of May 7^th, the threat of grass and brush fires continue to keep landowners, firefighters and emergency communication teams on alert. Before the rains that fell earlier in the month, 25,000 acres burned in the Mount Livermore area of Jeff Davis County. Fortunately, no homes were lost and no injuries were reported. One of the down sides of thunderstorms is the threat of fires started by lightning, so we all need to continue to "sit on ready, wait on go" as far as emergency preparedness is concerned. Hopefully the information we hear on the La Nina tapering off and the up-swing of the El Nino will return moisture to more normal expectations.

---CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR RAIN---

---Combined ARES/MARS/RACES Exercise---

On May 5^th, the West Gulf and Delta Divisions combined ARES/MARS/RACES Exercise was conducted, emphasizing the HF amateur radio digital modes, supported by HF SSB and CW modes in areas of no digital capabilities. The exercise began at 8:00 AM Saturday May 5^th, and concluded at 2:00 PM the same afternoon. Much planning proceeded the exercise all across the Sections of Oklahoma, North Texas, South Texas and West Texas in the West Gulf Division, and in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee in the Delta Division. Howard WB5EKW, West Texas SEC, spearheaded the West Texas Section digital efforts. Although declared a success, poor operating conditions on 40 meters created many obstacles for both digital and SSB/CW operations. In Alpine, Barb KM5VM and Bill W5NPR operated SSB from the Brewster County EOC, checking with the 7290 Traffic Net for any exercise related traffic, then with Lew KB5HP in El Paso on 7250 Kilohertz every 15 to 30 minutes. Extremely poor operating conditions eliminated any relay of exercise related traffic. I anticipate that a repeat of the exercise might be conducted, perhaps with the options of other bands and frequencies where improved operating conditions might exist. In spite of the problems, Howard deserves much praise for the efforts he put into the digital side of the exercise, as well as others in the various sections of the two divisions.

---PARC 12^th Annual Picnic and Swapfest, Amarillo---

Panhandle Amateur Radio Club held its 12^th Annual PARC Picnic and Swapfest in Amarillo on Saturday May 12^th. I was fortunate to be able to make the trip to Amarillo and enjoyed the visit and a very good barbeque lunch. The event was held at Thompson Park, and visiting that park was a treat in itself. You wouldn’t expect a city park inside the city limits to be that big. It was a beautiful park, and would have been a credit to any city. I guess I took the wrong exit and once inside the park had problems finding the location of the Swapfest. The event included a silent auction for ventage amateur radio equipment, all of which I wished I could have taken home. However, I think the next piece of equipment I bring home will require an addition to the house for storage. I had good visits with Henry Tanhsen N5HPJ, Earl Bottom N5NEBl, James Musgrave K5BZH, James Robbins KA5VVS, Bob Sanders N5TBD, and my good friend Ken Russell K5LQN from Lazbuddie. Ken had a helicopter contract here in the Big Bend area hunting coyotes on ranches back in the 70’s and early 80’s. I did not meet him at that time, but we know so many people in common, including ranch names and pasture and windmill names, that anyone over hearing our conversation would think we grew up together. Ken is also one of the net control operators on the North Texas Net Sunday mornings at 8:00 AM on 3950 kilohertz. WA5ROE/Bob and I check in on that net before switching to the Big Bend Emergency Net at 8:30 AM on 3922 kilohertz. All in all it was a very enjoyable trip and the Amarillo Club does a good job of making visitors feel welcome. Good job, PARC.

---AFD Crossband Military/Amateur Radio Communication Test---

Also on May 12^th, the AFD Crossband Military/Amateur Radio Communication test was conducted. The test was in observation of the 63^rd anniversary of Armed Forces Day. The annual celebration featured traditional military to amateur cross band communications SSB voice and Morse code tests. Those participating had the opportunity to receive recognition from the appropriate military radio station for their proven expertise. QSL cards were provided to those amateur stations making contact with their military counterparts.

---HamCom in Plano scheduled for June 8-9 2012---

HamCom 2012, advertised as the biggest hamfest in Texas, will be held in Plano on Friday June 9^th and Saturday June 10^th. This year’s featured guest and speaker is Rick Roderick K5UR, Little Arkansas. He has been awarded almost all available HF and VHF/UHF awards, holding many national records and has served on the ARRL Board of Directors for 20 years, and presently serves as ARRL First Vice President. He will be an interesting addition to the HamCom schedule. HamCom will also feature a Special Event Station operating with the call of W5P. They are asking for help to man the booth, so if you are available, please let them know.

More information on HamCom 2012 can be obtained by going to

www.hamcom.org. If you will be in Plano for Hamcom, please visit the West Gulf division booth. www.arrl.org/files/file/field-day/2012/2012-FD-rules.pdf

---ARRL Field Day 2012---

ARRL Field Day 2012 is just around the corner. Field Day nation-wide is always scheduled on the fourth full weekend of June, and this year the dates are June 23^th and June 24^th. Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the United States and Canada. It is described as an emergency preparedness test, a contest, a public relations demonstration, and generally the most important social event of the year for amateur radio clubs. Across West Texas, clubs and individuals are already gearing up for Field Day. Until the extremely dry year of 2011, you could always forecast thunderstorms and rain for Field Day weekend, but after last year all bets are off. We need rain bad enough in most parts of West Texas that we should be hoping, and even praying, that Field Day will once again be a rain motivator. A PDF file of Field day rules is available on

. Good luck to all participants.

---Silent Keys---

Robert C. Smith K5VRF, El Paso, TX, and member of the El Paso Amateur Radio Club. Robert became a Silent Key on May 15, 2012.

Our sympathies and prayers go out to the family and friends of Robert K5VRF.

---Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report---　

The following comments are excerpts from the Monthly Emergency Coordinator Report:

Comments from Section Emergency Coordinator:

The May 5th communications exercise that featured a joint effort among
the Texas ARMY MARS personnel and ARES/RACES groups was completed.  This event featured pure RF communications, without using the Internet  to pass digital traffic. This was a joint exercise with the West Gulf Division and the Delta Division. The only hard part was dealing with
poor propagation on 40 meters during the day. Poor conditions on 40
meters did slow things down a bit, however all participating ARES
groups did pass their traffic to the Texas State Operations Center.
Much was learned from this event. New ideas are already coming in
place now, to help coordinate things like radio frequency selection
and callsign assignments. We extend a sincere Thank You to all ARES
members. Without a doubt, it will be practice that will help our ARES
group to handle this type of Emcomm communications in the real world.

Keep yourself prepared for those emcomm situations, it would be a good
idea to check through your Go-Kits: Charge batteries, check the
radios, chargers, coax lines, portable antennas, ARES procedure
booklets, frequency charts, phone contact lists printed out. Having an
up to date phone list kept in your glove compartment sure is a good
thing to have.

Howard Collier WB5EKW SEC

Comments from Childress County EC

Four of us are planning to attend the Amarillo Hamfest this year.  I have a Technical Licensing class for this month, we will be using ARRL training materials.  We will be training four hospital personnel so they can utilize the equipment the state has installed for emergency communications.  There will be at least three more students in the class.  Testing anticipated for early June.

James Moody AF5S EC

Comments from El Paso County:

During the month of April EPCARES prepared for the May exercise by having a net and practised on how we will move traffi caround the county locally using RMS Express in the Packet P2P mode.

On April 22 we took our HSMM-MESH nodes to the park and practised IRC file transfers.  We started by transferring text files and then moved on the ICS-213 file.  We also explored the use of some of the other basic commands in the chat room.

Lew Maxwell KB5HPT EC

Comments Jeff Davis County EC:

Wow, busy month for Jeff Davis County. Our members, with help for the
Big Bend Amateur Radio Club, participated in the HammerFest Bicycle
race providing communications around the course. There is little cell
phone coverage in the county and the distances are long for driving.
Amateur Radio provides an easy way to communicate with different areas
of the race. Amateurs participating were KD5KBU, W5DWI, W5JUW, KM5VM,
W5NPR, K5ITT, K5TDA, and K5WWR,

In a repeat of last year's event there was also another large wild
land fire in Jeff Davis County. This time the threat was to the
sub-division called Davis Mountain Resort. Once again we cancelled
the HammerFest event and switched to providing emergency operations
for the county. Amateur operators provided communications at the
county Emergency Operations Center and at the evacuation center.
Amateur operators participating were KD5KBU, K5ITT, K5TDA, and W5NPR.

Jim Fowler KD5KBU EC 

(This report can be seen in its entirety by scrolling to the bottom of the West Texas Section Web Page). Once there, click on the link to the file under "downloads").

Signature and Call Sign

Howard Collier WB5EKW

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http://www.csvhfs.org Central States VHF Society
http://k5wph.org Sun City ARC K5WPH
http://www.w5es.org El Paso ARC W5ES
http://k5elp.com West Texas Rptr Assn, K5ELP
http://www.hamradioelpaso.com New web site in El Paso
http://www.bigbendarc.com Big Bend ARC, Alpine TX
http://www.w5qgg.org Midland ARC, Midland TX
http://www.orgsites.com/tx/w5lcc Lubbock Contest Club
http://hamradio.noaa.gov/ United States Skywarn
http://wx.findu.com/k5wph SCARC's WX Sta
http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/index.html Flare/MUF info
http://spaceweather.com/ Aurora, sun spots, CMEs
http://www.irlp.net/ Internet Radio Linking Project
http://irlp.g4eid.co.uk/status/all_reflectors.html Shows status of all reflectors
http://www.sota.org.uk Summits on the Air

http://www.w5qx.org/ San Angelo ARC

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Thanks again for all you do for the West Texas Section. Hope to see each of you soon. 73

ARRL West Texas Section

Bill Roberts W5NPR

Section Manager